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3 Marketing Tools You Should Discover.

Marketing tools can make your life much easier.

Whether you are an eMarketer, blogger or a marketer directing traffic to a corporate or non-profit website, you need to know that you are creating the right content for your audience, promoting it on the right platforms and monitoring it with the best marketing tools.

Our previous post gave you 5 tips about blogging, this post highlights 3 tools to help you make your blog successful.

Here are three that you might not know about. We find them very useful.

marketing tools
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

1 Ask The Public

Ask the public has a free version which is great for generating content ideas and blog titles for bloggers and entrepreneurs just starting out.  There is a premium paid version designed for marketers, agencies and anyone wanting more details. The premium version can be used by teams.

The free version will generate questions about a keyword and present them in the form of a wheel like in the image below or as a csv file for downloading.

Questions generated for “Widgets”

2 BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is one of the best marketing tools for finding the best content ideas for your market. It will show you which are the most shared articles in your category or for a keyword.

It has a free trial period and can be used for free subject to a monthly search limit.  The paid version offers many advanced features.

3 Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest was developed by the brilliant eMarketer and SEO specialist, Neil Patel. This marketing tool will give you an overview of how your domain is performing compared to others in your industry or market niche.

It will show you top SEO pages, keyword suggestions, content ideas and backlink data.

Ubersuggest has an SEO analyzer and a tool to find backlinks. Best of all it is free.

Conclusion

These three marketing tools are useful additions to any marketer’s toolbox.  Give them a try and come back and leave a comment about your experiences with them.

Peter Wright writes about life, marketing and tiny home living at Peterwrightsblog.com.
Clicking on some links on this site will let you buy products and services which may result in us receiving a commission, however, it will not affect the price you pay.
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The Top 5 Marketing Trends for 2018

If you are a business owner planning your 2018 marketing strategy, you might want to incorporate the following to help give you the best advantage over your competitors.

1- The Use of Artificial Intelligence. Although this is something that is already being used, more and more marketers will find more ways to use AI to their best advantage. For example, predictive analytics in apps can help business owners deliver ads and information to specific market segments they want to target.

2- Live Video Streaming. This isn’t new, but you will see this grow exponentially this year. Eighty percent of users said they would rather watch a live stream than read a blog post. According to Facebook, live video gets 3x more views. Go ahead and use live streaming to advertise an exclusive promotion, show off holiday displays or even show a ‘behind-the-scenes’ at an event.

3- Content Marketing Will Become Even Bigger. That’s right! This isn’t going away anytime soon and it’s no wonder – 70% of people said they’d rather learn about a business through an article than an ad. And, content marketing is cheaper than many other forms of marketing (plus it can produce more leads).

Healthy Waterloo Region Online Magazine

4- Digital Marketers are Targeting Local Communities. Digital platforms are making it easier for businesses to advertise to local markets and engage with them. Bigger brands are competing with small local businesses for the same market share. It will be more important than ever for local businesses to be more strategic in appealing to their neighbours.

5- Reviews, Comments and Engagement! It’s important for any business to build trust and one of the main ways the consumer learns about a business is through ratings and reviews. Transparency is more important than ever as it brings the human element to the marketplace. Encourage clients to leave a review on your social media pages. These hold a lot of clout for future business prospects.

For more information, you might want to check out these articles:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/12/18/how-digital-marketing-will-change-in-2018-15-top-trends/

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/12-digital-marketing-trends-to-watch-out-for-in-2018/512767/

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5 Genius Tips to Use Emotional Marketing Tactics in Facebook Ads

1-Create a sense of urgency – Without a deadline, people tend to toss the ad aside thinking they will get back to it – only they don’t.  Letting folks know that they are going to miss out unless they act NOW is key.  Here’s how you do it:

  • Ensure the best offer is in the image or in the headline
  • Keep the message brief and as simple as possible
  • Make sure you offer a spectacular deal
  • Date of the offer should be clear (i.e. ONLY TODAY!!!)

2-Use a tactic marketers refer to as “FOMO” – Fear of Missing Out – Do you remember when you were a kid and you thought that ALL your friends had a certain product and you felt left out because you didn’t have it?  Yes, this tactic works and it’s not only useful for promoting products and services but also events.  Here are some tips to use this to your best advertising advantage:

  • Make the reader feel like there is an important community that they need to be a part of
  • Pose a question which hints to the reader that they are missing out. (i.e. Is your SEO as high as it can be?)
  • Mention the number of people benefitting from your product or service
  • Like point #1 above, make it a time-limited offer

3-Demonstrate how you can improve the reader’s life. Give them a sense of hope.  Although we all know (or at least should) that buying stuff doesn’t bring us happiness, we still do it.  Those moments of instant gratification really help kick up the endorphins.  Slogans like “Get More Out of Life” create the illusion that life will be much better if we had the product/service being advertised.

4-Create a sense of belonging – People innately want to feel understood and supported by their peers. A sense of belonging to a community makes us all feel happier, healthier and motivated.   Here are some tips:

  • Mention the number of people using your products or services
  • Name some people that are already part of this community
  • Frame the offer as an exclusive invitation into the community
  • Make the entry to the community just challenging enough that they see its value

5-Show the excitement! There is no question that excitement increases a person impulsive nature. They make decisions very differently as excitement trumps rational thinking. Here’s how to do it:

  • Use an image that depicts excitement (i.e. people smiling or laughing)
  • Keep the ad short and use exclamation marks
  • Use bright colours
  • Make sure that your offer is enticing to your target market
  • Offer an amazing discount to make those fence-sitters jump on the bandwagon

Using emotionally-driven ads are incredibly effective and as noted above, not that difficult to implement.  Increase your sales and Facebook views by employing these emotional marketing tactics tips.  Just remember to create the ad that is appropriate for your target market.

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10 Low-Cost Ways to Market Your Small Business

Budgets can be tight when starting a new business and one of the expenses most small business owners tend to skimp on is marketing.  However, it is a necessity if you want the community to know about you.  The good news is that there are tactics that won’t break the bank. Here are 10:

1-Create great content-Think about every question any client has ever asked you and start writing about that.  Don’t forget that you know your business better than anyone.  What you think is obvious isn’t so to someone else.   Post it as a blog to your website.

2-Practice your elevator speech – The average attention span of an adult is six to eight seconds so crafting a great elevator speech to entice your audience is important.  Make sure it’s designed to grab attention to encourage engagement.

3-Where does your ideal client hang-out? – Are there any clubs, organizations or groups where potential clients may frequent? If so, get involved and meet people.  Get to know your community.

4-Build relationships – People are more inclined to do business with people they know.  Ask clients if you can add them to an email list and periodically communicate with them via newsletter.  This way, they continue to see your name, logo and brand so that when they need your service or product, they will be more inclined to call you rather than a competitor.

5-Develop a customer referral program – Whenever possible, ask for referrals.  Better yet, give out incentives to current clients to bring you new clients. Offer them a free month of service, a free product or some other incentive.  They enjoy the reward and you get a new client.

6-Engage in Social Media – Create accounts with the major social media platforms (ie. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.) and start posting.  Find out which platform your client demographic  spends most of their time on and spend some time engaging with them.

7-Network – Join networking groups. This is a fabulous way to connect with other entrepreneurs and forge new relationships.

8-Collaborate – Get a group of like-minded businesses and agree to cross-promote.  By having another business vouch for you, it acts as a referral and gives you added credibility.

9-Give a talk – Many networking groups offer their members a chance to showcase their business and talk about it. As uncomfortable as this may sound to you, don’t dismiss an opportunity to do a presentation about your business.  It’s a perfect opportunity to connect with others and explain the details about your products or service.

10-Create short videos – In this day and age, all you need to create a video is your cell phone and a video-editing software.  Demonstrate what you do on camera. It’s a powerful medium to connect with your audience. Post your videos straight to Facebook , YouTube and embed them in your website.

Many of the above tips can now be addressed by participating in online magazines such as this one.  For more information, don’t hesitate to connect with me through my contact page.

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